Tokyo’s manga ban has been signed into law after passing a final vote, and is set to come into effect in 2011, with Tokyo governor Ishihara crowing that “Japan still has some common sense left after all!”

All the major parties supported the ban – the ruling DPJ (leftist) insisted on a “prudent application” rider but otherwise did nothing to oppose the law as they did with the previous bill.

The LDP (right-wing) proposed and supported the original and current version of the bill. Their usual coalition partners, the Koumeito (the political arm of a Buddhist cult), also supported the bill, leaving only small parties to the left of the DPJ to oppose it.

Once again the motives of the DPJ can only be guessed at – they have repeatedly blocked national bans on possession of child pornography (already illegal to distribute) on civil liberties grounds, opposed the previously rejected version of the bill because it was worded as a ban on “virtual child pornography,” and actually insisted the just passed Tokyo law remove a “duty not to possess [real] child pornography” clause.

However, when the current bill’s wording was changed to ban depictions “promoting illegal or immoral sexual activity” (effectively a vastly more far-reaching ban than previously) rather than “[virtual] sexual activity involving minors” (this version of the ban was clearly targeting loli manga) as in the current version, their previous opposition all but evaporated.

That the law explicitly excludes photographic material can probably be interpreted both as a specific attack on “otaku” culture and an effort to avoid antagonising Japan’s mass media, who obviously would not support any restrictions on themselves but are only too happy to support them on other industries.

The 10 publishers who have boycotted the Tokyo Anime Fair are angry at the treatment meted out to the industry by Ishihara and his cronies:

“The earlier bill was defeated with heavy opposition, and we are indignant that the bill should be resubmitted in so short a time.”

Kadokawa’s CEO has vowed opposition will continue, although just what publishers can do about it is not clear, particularly in light of their evident ineptitude in handling politicians.

Ishihara for his part is crowing over the industry’s defeat:

“It makes sense for this to have passed – Japan still has some common sense left after all!”

In interviews he merely laughed at the industry boycott:

“If they’re outraged about this then they shouldn’t come. They’ll come the next year, for sure.”

Veteran shoujo mangaka Machiko Satonaka speaks of complete betrayal at the hands of the politicians:

“There were representatives who promised us ‘we won’t resubmit the bill without consulting manga and anime producers,’ but they submitted it anyway, so I feel we were tricked. There are many issues with the ordinance, in particular the ‘improperly promote or glorify [sexual activity]’ passage, and there is no way we can accept this.

In particular, I worry about the future for young mangaka – I hope they will persevere without the industry falling into decline.”

TELL THE TOKYO GOVERNMENT THAT THEIR MANGA BAN SUCKS! THOSE MOTHERFUCKING GOOD FOR NOTHING SHITTY ASS LICKING, SONS OF BITCHES, STUPID ASSHOLES, THAT THEY CAN TAKE THEIR ANIME AND MANGA BANNING ACT AND SHOVE IT UP THEIR ASS! I LIKE SEXUAL MANGA, AND I’M NOT GOING TO ALLOW SOME STUPID, SHIT FACED HALF-ASSES WHO THINK THAT THEIR DOING THIS FOR THE “BENEFIT OF THEIR COUNTRY” IS GOING TO STOP ME! BECAUSE IT WON’T! AND THEY’D BETTER REMOVE THIS BANNING ACT ON SEXUAL MANGA, OTHERWISE I’M GONNA KICK THEIR ASSES!!!!!!!!!!

We as Anime and Manga should do something about this, even if its as little as possible , but we really should ,for all the people who like Ecchi , Cosplay , Violence and seinen animes, you should really stand up for this , and also for all the people who like Yuri and Yaoi too , The Visual novels, eroges, everything, Anime is a big part of our lives, We should support the Japan anime companies and Mangakas , and all the anime fans, We can do something, Anime and Manga should be unrestricted, They are the best in this world , Fight for anime and manga . And people of Japan , vote this cunt out of the Government .

Wait so does this mean that they’re banning all anime and manga even if it’s not having to do with porn?! I think that’s just wrong because the Japanese practically invented it so it’s more or less culture right?although I’m not very sure if it is. Don’t ban anime and manga all the way and if people were smart enough they could probably find a way to bring it back even after its ban.

ok so the governor writes school gang rape books and then just so no-one else can do the same thing and make money he decides to kill manga…..damn i really wanted to go to japan and read lots of manga n watch lots of anime but now i wanna go to protest against this stupid law…i hope the people of japan are smart enough to demand that the law is taken away……

This will have the same effect if the marvel comics were made illigal: NERD RAGEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
But being serious now I think this law won’t go much longer, the manga industry is very big to just be wasted away.

It’s not the same, The U.S. already had a violent/sexy ban, and it was overturned i less than a year, due to “violating the first amendment” while as far as i know japan has no first amendment held up by the image of deified dead men, who founded that country and are considered, though they are more corrupt and hypocratic than current politicians, to be the greatest men that ever lived.

hi, this is america speaking, you been here? we elected a retard to president twice, and that retard started a war for oil, didn’t get oil, banned gay marriage, even though under the bill of rights he has no such power, tried to ban pornography, when porn has been around longer than his stupid christian idealism, and completely neglected a failing economy causing the worst econ0m1c delcine since the great depression,

yeah japan’s fucked up because they don’t want kids seeing pantys and blood.

if you mean the embargo against cuba, well then yeah, considering thats still in place, and cuba still fucked up, i’d say thats only bad for cuba. not to mention the risk has been eliminated due to the fact that we put in place a policy that if anyone from the east tried to mess with anywhere in th west that we would bitch slap them back to hell,

you guys shouldn’t be freaking out about this cause this law can be challenged. This law is in violation of the freedom of speech portion of the japanese constitution. Whether or not the publishers and otakus have guts to challenge is a totally different matter.

This law is mostly about giving the government the power to deny publication of any media. Unfortuanately the people in power are specifically targeting a sub culture.

Its really an easy win for publishers here. It just, I state again, its whether or not they have the guts to challenge it. Unfortuanately japanese publishers are kinda push overs.

thats how it is in america, and the stupids (also known as the tee party, aka, the republicans, aka, the wigs, aka, the wisky party, aka the most backwards and self destructive morons in all the free world aka Bushites aka Someone who has to keep changing their name due to the fact that every time they hold power they fuck it up so bad that they don’t want to associate with themselves aka the people with the same type of idealism that caused the japanese bill to pass) tried to do the same thing several times, which is why most rec drugs are illegal, and why prohibition went into place, wich was the worst thing that happened to america, causing organized crime to flourish and never really dissapear.

…I can’t even write a proper comment.
What good is this doing for anyone??? I don’t really understand WHY they would do this. In what mind is this reasonable? (Besides the idiots who approved this, of course. Fucking toads.)
Ugggghhh…this sucks!!! Damn it!

if i wasn’t certain that was sarcasm i would shove you up the ass of the fire shitting dragon. It was like say “Bush is the greatest president ever” or “the earth is only 10000 years old” or “God wanted me to kill my baby”

I think is right:
-There is a specific otaku DNA.
-Other people are not perverts at all.
-Pr0n doesn’t exist, there is only hentai.
-Appreciate a girl from a tv show is a thing we do only with 2-D.
-Cuteness is evil.
-If one comic talks about drug and rape, they all do it.
-Otakus can’t get a girlfriend. This is our illness.
-This is a crime to live as we like and choose our passions. We will go to jail and maybe to hell.

You guys act like it only affects the SEX part of the industry, but no violence, no smoking that takes out most of Manga/anime licensed and still ongoing: Case Closed-violent murders, Vampire Knight-scary images and gore, Bleach, I could care less about Naruto.

I can see it now. “This just in five year old girl raped by 58 year old japanese Osaka male. The rapist in question replied “I didn’t have loli pronz to wank too so I felt compelled to touch her because she was so moe and I was in moewithdrawal! You gotta belive me!”

“Are we supposed to go over there and teach these Anime/Manga companies how to “Buy Off” politicians?”
If only. But they must understand the concept of blackmail…

“Has no one here ever thought about what I said earlier? Doesn’t the national government of Japan have power to repeal and overturn a city government law?”
Yes, but the country itself is also run by old folks who want to fuck with the younger generations before they kick the bucket. All old people start doing stuff like that by their mid 60s. That’s why they get put in homes.

“overseas, netflix”
Stop with that. Nobody overseas will produce it because they’re all crazy christian countries that are too good for cartoons, and netflix won’t show it because it was banned somewhere; gaijin nations would follow likely suit in trying to ban it if this law lasted long enough.

There is nothing about banning anything. It is just if manga/anime “affects youth in a negative way such as sexual content, violence, criminal activity, suicide” the manga and/or anime would be considered 18+ which means it cannot be sold to minors. In other words it will deem a series that is quite popular an adult only title if the government deems it unhealthy for youth. Adult anime/manga would remain unaffected supposedly.

Anon from above i said this many times in other forms Heres a good idea the anime and manga companies continue to produce there work publish it over seas sell it on a website they made and ship over from seas $5 for processing then the price of shipping in unmarked boxes to prevent denied entry into japan also put it on the web like something similar to netflix and add a subscription so they make money disable right clicking while anime page is up and put some type of feedback to prevent screen capture software after all they need money to keep producing our anime we all like

Anon from 2 up I agree with above killing will probably continue until the ban is lifted for example out of a previous read thread an otaku kidnaps a 23 year old woman to make her a sex slave he her up and flushed her down a toilet for fear someone would find out and he would lose all of his anime,manga etc aka his otaku way of life of course he was found out and the police was notified

Black Market we be in the same Business we need to stay in touch I have over 900 GIGs of UN-censored anime on me and 2000 gigabytes in other places i like to make Archives i havent even seen any yet i use netflix for that if they get a good rating or recommended i download and others that look good from pic im set for a long time hahaha my estimate is around 9890 EP about 164 days of anime 24/7 or 3.6 years 3 hrs a day i usualy keep the anime to my self but the recent ban encourages me to share especially to japan as a middle finger to the DPJ hahaha A**Holes

As the ANON from above they should publish the titles over seas and make an online store to sell it and ship from over seas in unmarked boxes another good idea online instant streaming like netflix if you need a credit card you cant be to young or there parents don’t care

I hope this ban will make newer titles suck less since they won’t be able to resort to mindless characters and retarded plots with tits tacked on in order to make them successful… although they can still resort to moeblob-infested crap like K-on and stuff.

I’d be all for a moeblob ban.

Then, once series are cleaned from these banes that have brung them to the rock-bottom of originality and creativity, they’d be allowed to resort to these tropes once more, probably creating a shittiness infestation-ban cycle.

The anime and manga industries should continue to produce the same as before just publish outside of japan and sell there merchandise online and ship from a different country in un marked boxes a fix for the ban

You guys should know that the only thing it’s doing is preventing minors from obtaining materials containing graphic sexual content (violent or otherwise) within Tokyo. Sure, it’s pretty lame and probably hurts business, but remember how it was considered unlawful in the United States for a game retailer to sell mature-rated titles to people under 17? Those still sell, the only people who got screwed were the kids.

There will be the day when Ishihara and his cohorts would be lynched by a Library Defense Force. Seriously.

Or had his name written by Light Yagami on the Death Note.

In the meantime, life goes on and the writers will just go around the loopholes of the law. If the law was ambiguous enough for censors, then this is the case for the publishers. Eventually in two decades or so, the law would become redundant and Ishihara will pass into history as a racist, moralist bigot.

As much as I hate government regulation , which is why I’m against the bill , I’m interested to see what happens . In some ways I was for the bill because I thought that it’s existence at the very least represented the Anime and Manga industry’s unwillingness to accept any critique (or open discussion) on erotica or their inability to express sexual themes in no other way other than misusing erotica . I really wanted this matter to be settled without government interference and thought the open discussions created by the ban among developers was a good sign , but it didn’t stop the bill . Maybe the bill will get the ball rolling on criticism on erotica , it won’t however extinguish creativity as some would think .

if you really think about it, manga and anime are both a huge part of Japan’s pop culture. They take that away, than there economy is going to go way down. This kind of stuff is probably the only thing I’d hate about living in Japan (excluding the fact that it is right on top of the ring of fire). Older Japanese are all too traditional, proper, and conformist for there own good. But I bet $100 that they’re are going to get rid of this bill quite soon.

This fucking bullshit! Britannia, take Japan over already. It would probably be better under your rule, as you probably aren’t stupid enough to waste so much time worrying about the manga industry. Soon enough, any EXPRESSION of a crime will be interpreted as promoting crime, and will be banned. No finger gun gestures, even. According to these stupid-ass logic, pointing your finger and saying “bang” should be illegal.

Besides, even if it did promote and glorify crime, it should still be allowed to exist. Freedom of expression/speech, assholes.

Yes it sucks, but it probably won’t be in effect for terribly long considering the long-lasting effect and repercussions it will have. With all of the opposition from the industry, and with companies like Jump saying they’ll publish manga regardless of what occurs, it’s highly likely that this will be repealed or just simply ignored within time. The only thing this bill is honestly accomplishing is making Ishihara look like an asshole to everybody who knows about it.

Honestly, it’s not the end of the world and certainly not the end of anime and manga. This is just a temporary intermission. Just wait it out and things will be back to normal again.

I wonder.
Have you ever asked yourself; “Hey, in the 1930’s, when antisemitism was used as fuel to skyrocket the Nazis into absolute power, did the Jewish populace think to just “sit it out?”

Many people will not like how i used this episode of history but you can’t deny how this is yet another persecution of a minority at the hands of fascists.

Ishihara and his cronies are about as ultra-nationalist as it gets. The only thing missing is how they openly start to kill the people that are in their way. Or maybe they already did that? Can you be so sure?

This atrocious “law” is nothing but a witchhunt against otakus. Every person with half a brain can easily recognize that. And as always with a witchhunt, there will come a time when the hunt turns into the “burning” part. I’m not waiting for Ishihara or any other fascist to burn people before i get off my butt and openly demonstrate my defiance.

The Japanese defiance, so far, was less than grand. I surely hope they haven’t forgotten how to demonstrate openly. Because that’s what they really ought to do.

Lawl, we are not talking about killin or burnin peops here, we are talking about preventing otkaus from fapping on kids gettin fucked in the butt by monsters. call it a witch hunt or wtvh, makes any sense for sanes persons in the head. and plz , dont compare this to things like WW2 or faschism or wtvh >.> its an insult to people who suffered from them. Yeah it sucks that it is “imposed” but man they are not banning manga themsleves, they are banning the shitty-side. U mad u cant watch kid gettin fucked?

I seriously hope there the Japan’s anime industry will do more than just boycotting the Tokyo Anime Fair. Not to mention the lack of resistance to this bill over there. Can this law really be overturned?

The only reason why they started this law is because Ishihara and his cronies wanted to see more real rape and homosexual photos and videos instead of fictional versions. That’s the simplest explanation why he didn’t oppose the real versions of the media.

And on the other hand, shy, nerdy otakus will finally be FORCED to come out of their cozy little homes into the sunlight to finally become human and actually meet real women so they can reproduce and yes, REPOPULATE Japan, too!XD

I think it would be best, if ALL the anime and manga moved to 18+ category, as a form of protest. Then the only way the highschoolers could buy those materials would be to have someone to buy it for them. Otakus need more to socialize anyway, and this could help them. In my country, it is illegal to sell alcohol or cigarettes to minors, but we never had a problem back then, and nowadays it is not uncommon to see even middle school kids smoking and being drunk, they even have marijuana, which was not as common as now. I remember how much fun was it when I was 15 and one little bottle of potato distilate (fake rum) was enough to get drunk three of us in a cinema(yes, we were drinking on public, and hardly get home). So I wonder if it would be really that hard to obtain anime or manga for them, even if illegal for those <18. They could create secret clubs to buy anime, it could even add taste of forbidden fruit to a "common" anime, making it more juicy for them.

The problem is underage authors – so sixteen years old fangirl won't have her BL doujinshi sold, and could be even expelled from school for illegaly selling it. The solution would be something like college club of otakus(Genshiken 😉 ), who would cooperate with young mangaka to sell their stuff, maybe having 10% of price as club "fee". Otakus would unite and form distributed distribution lines – secret societies of fans. But there is still one disadvantage, underage fans would not have a fun at Komiket buying stuff, maybe it should be more based as a talk with mangakas, and selling would not occur there so much. Anime studios could make even more profit from this law, by encourageing the formation of such clubs of fans, forbidden fruit tastes best.

Soon, any publishers in Tokyo will start to relocate to other places. Their books won’t be sold in Tokyo, so book stores will suffer a little probably. Foreign Tourism will drop for sure. Eventually as they keep expanding what the bill does and doesn’t cover, entire industries will leave Tokyo and there will be less of a local economy.

Don’t worry. There won’t be anything left for Ishihara to govern if this keeps up.

My idea, make a child, or someone with the drawing ability of one, draw a scene from one of his books with a note saying “I loved your book.”

I think this will probably go away when they realize, “Hey, our economy isn’t doing so hot, do you think it was a good idea to restrict a well off industry?” Not that it was really well off at this point…

Oh, I forgot one thing more:
I heard about will make Doujin of Ishihara’s book:太陽の季節, Season of the Sun.

Why? Because Season of the sun literature with eroticism, like “tear off the paper sliding door with the penis.”(Maybe stabbing the paper sliding dor but I had doubt about how should traduct “yaburu”. Anyway, the character on this book damages the paper sliding door with penis)

And guess what:
1:THIS BOOK IS NOT R18!!
2:He was victim of “Boys made rape, assault and illicit sexual relationship because saw the movie based on Season of the Sun.” like what manga and anime suffers.

Yes this is not a ban but a restriction. If you read Anon 05:52 16/12/2010’s statement then you’d also realize this ban i more serious, that simple things such as a manga with characters wearing a school uniform or characters being under the age 18 can risk the manga to be canceled. Even if the manga is not BL, yuri, hentai or romance wearing a school uniform or being a high school student can still be subjective to review. And we all know that demographics show that high school life is more interesting than stories on university life or older. I wonder how the law will play out. (Worried)

But what’s important to say is that this new law is not going to sit well with Ishihara. If the Japanese voters do have a brain, he won’t be in office next term. When is the next Tokyo Governor election anways?

I’m not familiar with Japanese law but does the Japanese national government have power to overturn a city law being unconstitutional like the U.S. does? Maybe a Japanese local can inform me.

senile old men die, not mention he picked a fight with the wrong people there is SERIOUS money behind us the whole Tokyo economy behind us when the pressure hits this law will be gone mark my words and dont give me that bullshit that the Anime Manga and Games this law effects are a small portion of the economy the law is vague enough to affect the entirety of Otaku passtimes including MULTINATIONAL tittles like Final Fantasy Resident Evil Metal Gear Solid and heres a big one Call of Duty he HATES all of them, judging by your comments artefact you understand little of the history of prohibition and little of human nature, and even if large companies dont protest this law Otaku most certinley will we all know how fucking crazy they are someone will challenge it and if the Japanese are as spineless as you say they are it wont take much to get this law destroyed it doesnt have what it takes to last long

and even in the worst case scenario the law stays we will adapt will survive when tomorrow comes our hobby WILL STILL BE HERE

I hope studios move out from japan and come to mexico atleast here they don’t have to worry about laws and sh*t a couple of hundred pesos fixes everything, for the other hand i hope this politicians get what they diserve by doing this law they doom their son’s and daugthers why u ask? because its simple they go to schools and what do u find in schools????

Ok, you know what. I was thinking in writing to the japanese embassy here in Bolivia to express my ideas on this bill, like that it is full of shit, but with better words.
I bet there is one Japanese embassy in the country you live so maybe we, people who live outside japan, actually COULD do something about it, even it might be useless, it is worth trying.

To be honest, it’s not. Ishihara doesn’t even care about his own fellow japanese, so he’ll certainly not hear complaints of dirty foreigners.
There’s only one thing to do: waiting to see how it’ll turn.

And Ishihara is too dumb to realize the damage he’s done. It’s going to be hard to create when this horseshit law goes into effect. But I wonder, what if the property was created in Japan but was only meant for exportation? Would it still be subject to the law?

Wasn’t this bill originally intended to flat-out ban the production of 18+ material that portrayed children sexually (I.E. loli and shota)? Now they aren’t even bothering with those, but targeting non-pornographic works?!

*claps over and over again*
Amazing how fucking amazing ^__^
so they ban content in anime and manga “yet” they leave movies and novels.
They change a line so cp possession won’t be banned and
they have the nerve to call this “protecting the youth”, they dare call it,”for the health of the youth”.

Then the asswash says “good that japan still has some common sense”
its amazing how the party that was suppose to “oppose” this ends up back stabbing the industry, amazing how the law even got in the house and was fully accepted and even more amazing that no otakus are fighting this and the publishers couldn’t stop it.

Yeah the world truly is to fucked up and we really can’t have nice things.

why bullshit?
the main reason why Ishihara have this law implemented is to destroy us otaku and not to protect children etc

as the main reason is to destroy otaku community it is unreasonable to ban sexy games and drama

or in other word he actually doesn’t care about society etc
he only want to destroy otaku society….
therefore he doesn’t give a shit about what happened to other media
i do believe that he doesn’t even care that the number of sex crime increased because he doesn’t ban any other pornographic medias

your guys are halrious man talk about fear mongering and sensationalist, whos to say this bill wont be thrown out by july 2011? whos to say that when that old geezer dies it gets repealed? theres too much money on our side to lose they will have to give eventually

Wishful Thinking? I mean the feminist groups here are terrible! And we have to deal with the CBCP and diverse Muslim sects. The Philippines is East Asia’s Jerusalem: Too many religion, overlapping policies…

I’m actually not too worried about this. Give it a year or so and the economic consequences will show themselves, not to mention japan’s anime/manga fans will obviously have something to say when this ban begins to affect their favorite shows. Of course, Ishihara could choose to totally ignore them, but if it gets so bad that even his co-workers get on to him about it I think the entire nation might stop and think about what they’ve done and maybe even reconsider. Besides, if manga can no longer portray school-settings nor uniforms then most shoujo and shounen manga are doomed! Does Ishihara really think teens want to read about a middle-aged guy who works at a supermarket bagging groceries?

No one was left who could remember how it had happened, how the anime industry had fallen under darkness.
At least no one who would do anything.
No one who would oppose the bills.
No one who would challenge their constitutionality,
or so Governor Ishihara believed…

The Tokyo government itself may be looking to releal it when the full effect is felt.

The TAF is already dying due to the major participators dropping out and there is no way in hell Comiket is going to survive in any previous form. Just look at the crowds you see for each comiket, those people need to eat/sleep somewhere if they’re not local and that means huge income for local businesses.

I feel as though we are moving backwards in time.. and going back to a society without much freedom of expression. Not to mention government on the other side of the earth trying to shutdown esentially a news source… ie wikileaks. No more free press around the world?

I led a good anime life… but if this fucking bill stays then it’s more than likely ganna end since they’ll announce Gundam as “Being violent and a danger to youth for putting teenagers into combat” *sighs* bye bye gunpla…

thats the thing anon we wont have these’ “manley” anime either since they would involve violence and thus fall under the “may cause impact on a childs upbringing” bullshit. nothing is sacred now.. except for eva perhaps.

This is awful. Companies were just now starting to get into technical enforcement of EXISTING hated censorship laws. If it’s voluntary enforcement, no one is going to come within a hundred yards of the legal limit because no one knows what the fuck that even means…

I bet the financial incentive to make something R18 that would have previously been sold freely to the general market is lower, and that means a lot of stuff won’t even be started in the first place, or at least have their content modified to fit the new law.

Even now, I’m worried if on-going stuff like the second season of Index, Ore imouto, and To love ru needs to be changed because of the law.

What’s with the right wing lately in countries around the world? They were always a bit nutty, but it seems in the past few years they completely jumped off the deep end.

Incidentally, this is why I never ever trust something labeled as “common sense”, this law shows why the kneejerk reaction to a complex issue is almost always the wrong approach. In any case, when the manga/anime industry either evaporates or moves out of Tokyo entirely, taking the hundreds of millions of dollars a year in sales and tourism it generates with it, hopefully the voters will voice their displeasure, but considering the nature of parliamentary democracy I somehow doubt it.

From the article: “The LDP (right-wing) proposed and supported the original and current version of the bill. Their usual coalition partners, the Koumeito (the political arm of a Buddhist cult), also supported the bill, leaving only small parties to the left of the DPJ to oppose it.”

Have you guys read what Studio Ghibli had to say to this?
They merely mentioned something about having “faith” regardless if that bill will prove right or wrong.
That’s just your common cowardish excuse we are all used to from the Japanese.
One of the most renowned studios, that should have stood on the forefront propagating the virtues and benefits of animation…..did nothing. Even better, all that yellow paint on their bellies didn’t even properly dry and they already present such an atrocious escapist comment.
Fuck them. And the the “Japanese opposition”. Was there even any? Or was there a fucking anime character birthday they had to celebrate instead?

I’m wholly disgusted with those spineless cowards. They completely lost face to the international community and it just shows that they are really completely useless.

I sincerely hope that Ishihara gets his punishment. All our bases are belong to those fuckers now, eh? Well, it’s time to play hardball then. They take from us, we take from them.

Time for the publishers to pack up and move to Osaka, perhaps? What better way to make a stand then to completely remove yourself from one city and place yourself in another? One which occasionally seen as a rival to Tokyo? 😉

Mind you, perhaps this means that we’ll get more anime with good stories rather than anime focussing on sex. I myself am not much a fan of the sex boom. However, it’s just as likely we get a second moe boom, which I wouldn’t really welcome either. Personal preferences and all. 🙂

Of course, this all depends on how draconic they’ll be when applying these laws. If they go overboard… Well, let’s just say it would be bad.

Great job Ishihara, you got even Hitler, a well-known closet otaku himself, pissed. Video’s in Chinese, though it’s probably not hard to guess what the Fuhrer’s angry about, based on most of the lamenting comments here.

guess all the good stuff will have to go underground…like wtf yo, as soon as they removed references to CP in the bill it passed? FUCK YOU Ishihara, how does one define what “promoting illegal or immoral sexual activity” is?

Can’t see what the fuss is all about…they’re just moving stories with incest, rape and graphic sex to the adult section. Unless you think that reading about rape and incest is a moral right for *underage* kids, Tokyo’s move is reasonable.

You didn’t even read anything about that bill ,did you? It was never about pornography in the first place. Every single line regarding “sexual behaviour, violence, unsocial tendencies” is completely vague. One can interpret anything into it. And that’s the problem. Politics can now intervene whenever they feel like it. Whenever something goes against their idea of proper conduct.
Are you really so stupid to not realize that?

Dude seriously ?
This is and never was about “protecting children” it was always about “attacking otakus”, noticed how the “original” propels, to ban “loli” was completely removed because it was contradicting the right to own child pornography ? Notice how “only” anime and manga are so called “harmful” YET there many graphic and mature novels and movies ? if they really wanted a “fair” solution then they would of implemented the age system but of course that was not the aim.

The oligarchy, the ultra wealthy powers that be, need their culture wars. They need to stir the lower classes into a frothing rage about- not much of anything- in order to distract them from the looting.

And the puppet politicians in any given locale, whether labeled “liberal” or “conservative”, will give their owners what they want.

Ishihara is like Japanese Jack Thompson, except that he has more power and it’s about anime and manga.

…actually, I’m wondering. Is this going to affect games over there as well? I mean all these visual novels? Not all of them are considered 18+ (or so I think) and they still have some fanservice in (despite it’s mostly unanimated).

By what I could read so far, this ban rules are so vague and broad that technically Doraemon could be ban. It got under ages characters, it got pantu, it got mild nudity. All the things that make you want go and commit some serious crime, or so they say in Tokyo.

and second the only thing we can do is hope, that otakus and neets stop beign so conformists and take some kind of action, and japanese manga publishers better learn a lesson from american game developers wich are doing a lot against the “violent games law”

Well Japan…. Say goodbye to low crime rates, now without being able to get ways to release themselves, some of these people will end up turning to real crime instead of just staying locked safely away from the rest of the world… You know as well as I do some people should never see the light of day, and yet forcing them to is just not going to end well for anyone.

Then again after the crime rate soars and the gvt is scratching it’s head why…. we will already know and be able to laugh in their faces about it.

Anyone know if/how this will affect anime currently in production? I’m specifically worried about OreImo. :/ Hope they don’t censor the crap out of the remaining eps to remove any vague reference to incest. Or just cancel it completely.

Production values can always be restored. I can live with bad art if the show has worthwhile ideas. Case in point: Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt. The art is downright ugly. I hope it’s cheap. But I enjoy the humor.

So long as the ideas are shocking and subversive, low-quality art can be handled. For that matter, some bright director will figure out a way to make high-quality art cheaper.

“Tokyo’s manga ban has been signed into law after passing a final vote, and is set to come into effect in 2011, with Tokyo governor Ishihara crowing that “Japan still has some common sense left after all!””

>“It makes sense for this to have passed – Japan still has some common sense left after all!”

>“Japan still has some common sense left after all!”

WHAT…FUCKING…COMMON…SE–oh my god…

::bangs head on the wall in frustration repeatedly, Captain-Picard-level epic facepalm in reaction to throbbing pain::

What fucking common sense??? What is this I don’t even…

You know what, this proves what I said all along: corrupt governments and politicians are god-like trolls who love to abuse their power (especially to ban, regulate, etc.) once they get a taste of it and get their hands on it. Since the LDP supported the DPJ on the ban, a regular banhammer isn’t enough for these power-hungry freaks.

They need to be smacked some sense on the head with a PERMABANHAMMER!

>“If they’re outraged about this then they shouldn’t come. They’ll come the next year, for sure.”

NO SHIT, SHERLOCK! If this bill is enforced, there won’t even BE a next year for them!

Guys, try to be a little calm, okay? The law is shite, we all hate it, but it’s not the end of the world. What I think will happen is this:

a) nothing will happen to the large publishers, they will be safe as always
b) 1-2 small publishers making some weird thing will be made examples of, which will only entail being embarrassed an maybe having to pull a book or two
c) that’s all

This is all about getting the industry to self-censor, which most industries already do (the eroge industry has standards and sticks to them). Manga is more a wild zone, and doujinshi too of course.

What they never not fucking do is have cops standing around Comiket like they do in Akiba, occasionally checking bags for “knives” (lol). This whole thing sucks, but unless they go overboard it won’t be any different from life in the U.S., where any nipple is a potential prosecution for violating non-existent standards for a “community” that only exists in the minds of people who want to perceive themselves as leaders of said community. (If there’s no cohesive community there’s nothing for them to be leader of.) Nevermind what people in that community are googling for at night.

So anyway, try to be at peace, and remember the rule of ‘tatemae’ and ‘honne’ in Japan. There will be an outer face that some publishers wear and the real opinions inside. And also, this does not in any way affect true 18+ works, only stuff that could be/is being sold to minors, at least that’s what the law says.

I also made a semi-post about this on J-List today, too. Who’d have thought we’d wish for more lawyers.

I’m not convinced it is about self-censorship – the publishers and ministry/Tokyo government would have arranged all this behind closed doors if so, with a proper voluntary rating system as games have. The publishers and Tokyo politicians certainly would not now be at each others throats in public in a very un-Japanese fashion.

There was only a month to “discuss” the bill and comments from publishers seem to indicate Ishihara would not strike a deal with them behind the scenes – it seems something went wrong in the usual way of working these things out and Ishihara was probably it.

I’m more scared for my main source of entertainment with anime, the Mecha Genera and Specifically “Gundam”. Even though some series try to promote peace it still could be labeled “Violent’ and fucked with… and if that happens someone’s getting a beam saber and some fin funnels shoved up their ass *stares darkly at a picture of Ishihara with a knife jabbed in his face*

It shouldn’t need to be said, but for anyone still clueless: Japanese society hates otaku, anime and manga otaku in particular.

Which is probably the reason why this bill passed while restrictions on child porn were overturned. What could turn this around is something like the international mass media shaming them because of this backward behavior.

So as I understand the new law bans anything that is “promoting illegal or immoral sexual activity”? It means that even villains or anti-heroes are illegal in non-hentai anime? I can imagine that it can ban even a “good character” breaking a law, even if the law is a stupid one? Will they also censor already existing stuff? What is immoral sexual activity? Is it also bondage, bdsm, crossdressing? They might thing so, this is really, really bad!

Can the studios produce the material in Tokyo, while selling it somewhere else? Or is even a possession or creation banned? If not, the studios can move their distribution somewhere else, while still being located in a Tokyo. Then they can sell their stuff via a delivery service. Or move distribution to the internet. They could create a company in a different country, and sell it from there. If moved there, they could sell uncensored hentai, and their artists could draw problematic scenes with tablet and an application on a distant desktop run in a server. The Japanese companies cannot own uncensored hentai with an intention of sell, but if the content is located in a different country and owned by an officialy non-Japanese company (that being daughter-company of Japanese one, actually), then there is no problem. While anything under 18 is illegal in western countries to be depicted as having a sex, all other stuff excluding sex with animals(which is also illegal) is legal, an so we could get some nice college girls bondaged, voluntarily raped or on contrary dominating, torturing male “victim”, forcing him to cosplay a schoolgirl and much more fun stuff, and that would be totally uncensored (and totemo totemo kampeki ;)). Hell, they could create some ecchi where dominating female teachers would force males to crossdress to highschool girls, and have a hentai or ecchi comedy with that. Actually, even today’s ecchi is absolutely ok in west, since there is no illegal sexual activity, only stupid panty shots at most.

So all what is needed is to change distribution model, and sell from US or EU, and all the fetishes and perversions would be absolutely legal, excluding rori&animalXXX – not present at anime at all anyway, and nekomimi having sex cannot be considered this. They should be more creative anyway, and include some more fetishes, like creative bondage, various dresses with laces for cosplay inspiration, more footfetish, more crossdressing, more bdsm, more yuri, and for fangirls – more yaoi.

the seinin are in mature magazines TARGETED at old teens (16-17+) however this law makes it so that any show with mature themes(gantz,berserk,etc) can be either censored or banned. Theirs also the fact that even the big three shouen can be targeted, this bills however does not target the ero industry(its already 18+) therefor all the ero-fetish are safe FOR NOW, this whole thing is just to target the otaku class and to make the asswipe of a moral faggot feel better about themselves and DPJ has stabbed everyone in the back because THEY are SUPPOSE to be “against” this shit.

The problem is that there are to many regulations. From now on, any very little detail that is on the ban, will get banned. They will say… to much violence… oh there is one panty shot… Any excuse, they will use to ban the title and it will work.

anon:- you dumb piece of shit, for the last fucking time it does not affect ero, learn to read fucking properly, you have any damn idea how to read ? or are you a 12 year old tough guy who still has mommy’s milk on your face, fucking failure of a individual.

These are mangaka, for chris’sakes. They should use their talents to make laughing stocks of Ishihara and his cronies. Turn them into bumbling manga characters and let everyone have a good laugh at their expense.

>Too right, mate. Now in the eyes of the world, they’re the victims. Nobody’s gonna say a word when the Otakus club every politicians they can reach.
__________

You seem to have forgotten how normalfags think. In the eyes of the world, Ishihara will be the hero because he fought against the perverts and brought morals and decency back to Japan. Remember that 90% of the world’s population are moralfags (or at least pretend to be).

The days when people might not have agreed with what we said but would have defended to the death our right to say it are long gone.

What I don’t get is this, they had the loli-ban, media and publication previous to this. Now they want to save the children when initially the house didn’t pass the prior in the first place thus completely contradicting themselves?
(Noted it’s politics which it happens all the time but still…)
Either way there is good and bad with this, that being said, population increase, possibly? Due to men actually at times going out and finding a women (Not generalized to otaku realistically just Japanese men in general.) Rather then using a show to “enjoy” themselves.
Bad of course being a few titles get pulled off the shelves and media is censored in some cases due to governmental rule. My question would be this doesn’t necessarily effect currently run titles that end previous to the date the law is suppose to take effect or is the censorship completely immediate?
Of course I could just not be reading something, I don’t know.
My thoughts? It’s an interesting concept with a failed delivery, but due to decline in profit via exports and internal it will either be heavily revised or even lifted due to strain from major players in the industry. (Let’s not forget this has happened MANY times before this and it always came out for the good.)
So something to likely hope for right?

‘Either way there is good and bad with this, that being said, population increase, possibly? Due to men actually at times going out and finding a women (Not generalized to otaku realistically just Japanese men in general.) Rather then using a show to “enjoy” themselves.’

Japan has a LOT of abortions.

Even if a few lolicons stop wanking and spend their money on blowjobs from whores, they’re not going to become dutiful fathers.

If they manage to knock someone up, they’ll probably just abort it rather than suddenly decide to spend money they don’t have raising a kid they will never be able to afford.

Agreed Rick and again you have to put this into consideration as well, Anon 1. I’ve talked with quite a few Japanese women and 6/10 were quite shallow with there ideals (Money, not an otaku, has a future,ect.) Now I’m not implying ALL are ,in fact a lot of them are nice to be honest however between the abortion rate and with these socialistic feminist ideals it seems even with a ban on items specifically targeted toward sex, ecchi, ect. The population rate will still stay within the negatives.
Here’s hoping for a more positive outlook for Japanese population, eh?

We cannot not let this oppression to Japanese culture stand. No matter if you believe if anime, manga, visual novels and games to be a big or small part of Japan’s culture, this law is meant to silent those they find not suitable.

When you start censoring the ideas of the people, you start taking away a part of its culture. Inevitably this leads to the deterioration of the culture. Which is why I so strongly condemn this law. The people should not have to be silenced in order to preserve some archaic notion of what Japan is. They should be allowed to evolve their culture as they see it and let the people decide what they want to do with it.

Those who agree with this, I urge you to join me and the Black Knights to speak up against this travesty of a law to move Japan’s future forward!

Count me in Legion-taicho! Just give me a moment to put on my Wrathful Sin shirt… where did it put it. oh here it is! right next to my kill Ishihara with a ten foot spiked dildo up his ass picket sign >D

From an economic standpoint, Japan’s economy may be cut by around 10%-25%. Seeing as that this will be severely constricting the current industry, and how Japan’s economy is actually spiraling down even before this bullshit, this is the worst move they could make.

Dear Onan,
“Pathetic losers”-That wasn’t really nice. If You consider everyone here as losers probably You’re the same or worst. Due to the simple fact that You’re somewhere in the safety of Your little room(my speculation) writing insulting comments. That’s just sad. I don’t know how it sounds for You, but for me it’s just low.

As far as i’m concerned, the world is already fucked, this is just proof, as a mass we have given our freedom and our youth to the bitter and old minority, calling it democracy when really it’s just a group dictatorship.

Besides the fact that a lot of this was borderline pornographic to begin with, I believe this only serves to nail the coffin shut.

Otaku won’t leave Tokyo because it’s now 18+, but I assure you that many companies will begin looking to greener pastures.

Given Japan’s growing financial problems, doing this may be crippling to the publishing industry in Tokyo. The otaku cultures of other major cities meanwhile continue to thrive, and I wouldn’t be surprised if many companies decide to move to more healthy climates.

Also to note, Tokyo is geographically small. In radical practice, I would be willing to hazard a hypothetical situation if where all publishers simply left the Tokyo Metropolitan ward, they’d simply be able to leave the city to rot on its own.

The otaku capital of the world, not just japan, has just dealt a crippling blow to it’s people and itself, not to mention their proud of the fact, and you just want to say move? that not what you do, that’s not what’s to be done. You gather the masses and you stand and fight, that’s how all things are won. with the help and understanding of many people. So while you say, “Just move,” i say
“Just move them,”

Q: This is only sexual stuff, right?
A: No. It reads “anything that may hinder the healthy growth of youths by stirring sexual emotions, promoting cruel behaviour, or causing suicidal or criminal tendencies”, which is a purposefully ambiguous blanket statement that can pretty much be applied to anything. Even Doraemon could be considered 18+ under this.

Q: Elaborate?
A: No criminal acts. That means no killing, no stealing, no carrying of weapons, no sharing of bicycles, no smoking/drinking for minors (in fact since it says “promoting” criminal behaviour, it could be argued that no smoking/drinking will be allowed at all). Basically anything with action could be considered promoting cruel/criminal behaviour. Meanwhile the “stirring sexual emotions” part will similarly affect anything with fanservice or romance. So basically, only stuff like Hidamari Sketch will remain.

Q: What will this affect?
A: All forms of fiction except novels and live action.

Q: How will it affect them?
A: In Tokyo, everything has to be classified by the industry under either all-ages (below 18) and 18+, and stores will have to make sure minors can’t get 18+ stuff.

Q: So just slap an 18+ sticker and life goes on as usual, no big deal, right?
A: No. If they can’t sell it to minors they won’t bother making it in the first place.

Q: Only Tokyo, so move out, no big deal.
A: Tokyo is the economic centre of Japan, plus all of the big companies honsha are located in Tokyo (some have their own ridiculously expensive skyscrapers located in ridiculously expensive districts). The rest of the country will be affected. Plus if it’s passed in Tokyo, other prefectures are very likely to follow suit, as always.

This entire issue might be dependent on the ability of the government to enforce its law. I’m not really sure about the whole situation, comiket might become the thing of the past. Or people might just shrug-off the law and think of a loop-hole.

Loli Hentais are left untouched. Depending on how dangerous a manga featuring lolis is to the youth, it will have to be classified as r-18, as every containing harmful ideas, like the glorification of crime(Oceans 11/12/13 would be r-18).

Mmmh… just forget the issue about ecchi/loli for a moment, and think about this: forcing such classics as Lupin III (for glorification of theft) or Black Jack as 18+ titles is the epic fail of the year! I’m happy Osamu Tezuka is no more among us to see such shit…

From what i understand, this is ONLY in Tokyo city. It’ll be an inconvenience, but i reckon all the anime and manga publisher and makers will just head out of town, or exploit a loophole. More then likely out of town.

Also, it seems as though it’ll be ever so slightly tougher now, to get the story i am writing to be turned into an anime or manga (i was hoping to become a anime/manga writer).

Sad day for Tokyo and Anime/Manga. Guess we’ll just have to hope for the best 🙁

Ishihara just undermined an entire industry that generates millions of dollars in the deluded name of righteousness.

The only way besides a very blatant and successful assassination attempt would be if a government official working under him releases solid evidence of corruption (there’s got be one somewhere) and crimes so serious that he resigns.

I feel for the fujoshi though. Everyone here’s talking about the lolis while BL is pretty in the same group: on life support.

We’re suffering in silence. ^^”
No, I’m exaggerating.
I mean, I don’t think this law will affect ero industry much. Most of yaoi manga has very explicit content so it would be rated 18+ anyway, I guess.
As for anime, I’m sad to say that there’s very little of yaoi ones.
I can understand for something like Ai no Kusabi being “for adults only” but if I take Junjou Romantica TV for example, I seriously don’t know what category it’ll be.
Let alone pure shounen-ai.
I still can’t imagine how deep the impact of this law will be so I decided to wait and see what the restriction will do. However, I hope it won’t be as bad as it looks.

i cannot even remember last time i saw new Anime without ecchi except Hidamari Sketch(as i don’t like blood and violence)! ecchi is now like a part of me\industry now. Yes sometimes i rewatch/read Kare Kano or CCS but i can’t live without ecchi, season without 2-3 ecchi anime is not worth it.